Update: In Internet Explorer 11, native WebGL support was added. Chrome frame has been discontinued by Google.
Currently Internet Explorer does not sport a native WebGL implementation. This means X3DOM has to fallback to the Flash Player in order to render 3D content. However, there is a way around this: Chrome Frame. The plugin developed by Google replaces the default rendering engine of Internet Explorer with Google Chrome. What you get is the User Interface of Internet Explorer and the rendering capabilities of Google Chrome – including a native WebGL implementation.
As an IE user, we recommend you install the Chrome Frame plugin to experience the full power of X3DOM. As a developer, you can target the Chrome Frame rendering engine, by placing the following meta tag in your HTML head section:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1" />
Alternatively, if you do not want to edit all your HTML files for this, you can set a HTTP header on your server to trigger Chrome Frame. More info can be found here:
Our X3DOM examples already use that technique to enable Chrome Frame if you have it installed.
Here’s a introduction of Chrome Frame by Google: